Be Careful What You Wish For
by NefCanuck
Summary: What happens when Skuld tries to get her Goddess License upgraded


Authour's Notes:  
  
This is just a little bit of writing I submitted to the Anime North 2002 fan fiction contest. It didn't go anywhere with the judges unfortunately, but I figured that someone out there might actually like it. More chapters to follow.  
  
Legal Stuff  
  
OMG/AMG isn't owned by me in any way shape or form. Don't sue me okay?  
  
  
Be Careful What You Wish For - By NefCanuck  
  
As I sit here writing this, I still can't believe that it's actually happened. Well, maybe "believe" isn't the right word. Understand, comprehend, make sense out of; are all words and phrases that come to mind in explaining the events that have happened to me in the last few days. It all started rather innocently enough while I was housebound a few days ago...  
  
I was sitting in my living room, bored out of my mind watching Mother Nature doing her best to dump over everyone and everything with her thick white carpet of snow. I sat there wishing that I had someone, anyone, to talk to at that moment. Suddenly seized with inspiration, I dialed a number to a friend in the hopes that they too were housebound. No such luck as the phone on the other side simply rang in sullen defiance to my silent pleas for a friendly voice on the other end.   
  
I was about to hang up the phone when I heard a clicking noise on other end of the line and a small, child-like voice answered "Hi there!" in as perky a tone as I had ever heard. Startled, I made a quick apology, but the voice on the other end of the line seemed to be listening to someone who was in the room with them. After a moment the voice spoke again "Hello, my name is Skuld, Goddess Second Class... I mean First Class in Training Limited License. You've reached the Goddess Technical Helpline. How can I help you?"   
  
Now at this point you could say I was a mite confused as it sounded like I had accidentally dialed into the in-patient line at the local mental ward. I began again to offer my sincerest apologies and made to hang up the phone when the voice piped up with "I'll be over there in a jiffy!" I hung up the phone and prayed that whoever was on the other end didn't have Caller ID when I heard a commotion... coming from my bathtub of all places! Curious, I went to see what was the matter....  
  
In my bathtub sat a young child, whose age I would have guessed to be about 12 years old. She sat in a puddle of water hugging my cat, who was wondering who the heck was sitting in his personal drinking fountain! The first words out of my mouth were what you would expect in a situation like this: "Who the hell are you and how the heck did you end up in my bathtub?" The young girl blinked, hopped out of my bathtub dry as a bone and offered her hand. I looked in her hand and picked up the card she held in it. The card read: 'Skuld: Goddess First Class in Training - Limited License' I remembered the weird phone call I had accidentally made, looked at the young girl again, the card again and did the only thing I could do in a situation like this... I fainted dead away.  
  
I woke up after some undetermined length of time with a groan. My head felt like it had been used as a bass drum and my vision seemed oddly clouded. I tried to blink away the haze and my vision cleared up perfectly. This really confused me as I was used to wearing glasses that could charitably be described as rather strong, yet here I was, looking up at the ceiling without them, able to pick out the individual beams the made up the ceiling...  
  
"Beams that made up the ceiling?" I blurted aloud. "Where am I?" A mechanical noise caused me to turn my head to the source of the sound. I came face-to-knees with a mechanical being. I looked up at what I assumed was its face and it acknowledged my gaze with a chirping sound. It then spoke "Subject awake, must notify Mistress Skuld. Please wait here a moment." With that it turned around and proceeded to walk out the door, closing it behind itself. I sat upright and looked around; what I saw was not comforting in the least.  
  
The room was filled with all manner of mechanical contraptions and doodads. Frankly it looked like a scene from "Young Frankenstein" minus the creature, unless that was where I came in to all this. I saw the sign on the wall that read "Welcome to Skuld Labs, watch your step and have a nice day!"  
  
I didn't know whether to laugh at the insanity of it all or look for the nearest psychiatric ward to admit myself. I stood up in an attempt to further familiarize myself with my surroundings when I received another in the series of shocks that I had been hit with that day. I caught a glimpse of myself in a small mirror, and bit my tongue to avoid screaming. Staring back at me was a younger man than I, in his early twenties with sandy blond hair. I whipsawed my head around hoping to find a full-length mirror, to try and get the full picture of my predicament. My prayers were answered when out of the corner of my eye I found a full-length mirror in what appeared to be the sleeping area in this haphazard collection of gadgets. I made my way to it and got a good look at myself....  
  
I saw a young man with a wild mane of sandy blond hair and blue eyes. Looking down I saw the clothes that I had been wearing earlier, but the body in them was alien to me. The body I saw in the mirror was fit and trim! Hell, it even had muscles! This was definitely getting weirder by the minute. Taking off my shirt I gave an experimental flex and noted the lines of definition in the muscles in my arms. I began to wonder if this exercise in narcissism was a good idea when there was a knock on the door.   
  
"Skuld? Are you in there?" I froze in terror, the rational part of my brain causing me to go silent, in the hopes that whoever it was would go away if they didn't get an answer. The voice tried again "Skuld! Where's my TV? You promised to have it ready by 5 o'clock and it's 4:45 now! I'll miss Giant Battler X if you don't hurry up!" I began to sweat in fear, hoping against hope that the voice would finally go away after not getting an answer....  
  
No such luck as the door began to slide open; I looked in panic for a place to hide. Finding nothing suitable I simply stepped behind the mirror I had been gazing into mere seconds before and stood on my toes as to minimize what could be seen from the other side of the mirror "Skuld! I know Belldandy is trying to help you get your license upgraded by training you. But you made a promise to your big sister Urd and I'm going to see that you keep it one way or the other!" I stood on my toes in utter silence, hoping that this person would stomp around for a while and leave when she didn't find who she was looking for. After a few minutes the room got quiet and I heard the door slide open and shut.   
  
I sighed to myself in relief and looked around the mirror coming face to face with the intruder, who had a big happy grin on her face and she exclaimed "Gotcha Skuld!" Then she opened her eyes and saw me, instead of her intended target. She blinked twice and pointed an accusing finger at me "Who the heck are YOU?" The last word said so loud that it felt like it was being driven through my skull with a nailgun. I could only stammer and stutter even as she advanced on me with that accusing glare and finger pointed at me. I backed myself up against a far wall and could only gulp in terror as she began to chant something in a language that I couldn't understand. Suddenly the hair on my arms began tingling and an ominous rumble of thunder could be heard outside. I looked around in utter panic, looking for a place to hide from this madwoman and finding none, prepared myself for the worst with my eyes clenched tight.   
  
"Stop it Urd!" a new, unfamiliar voice cried out. At this point I opened my eyes, thanking whatever deity was responsible for saving me from a fate that likely included death, if this 'Urd' person had her way. What I saw was yet another young woman, I'd have pegged her in her late teens, early twenties. She radiated calm like a sun and I could feel all my tensions melting away, almost as if I knew I could implicitly trust her. Which the rational part of my mind screamed at me was really utter nonsense, but at this point any port of sanity in this sea of insanity was fine by me. Behind her, trying to shrink herself so as to be unnoticeable was the young lady who had started this insanity rolling. Skuld looked at me and in a meek voice said "Oops" and waved weakly. "Oops indeed" I muttered to myself and waved back just as weakly...  
  
As the four of us later sat around a table drinking tea it became apparent just what had happened to bring me to this strange place. Apparently Skuld was supposed to grant me a wish as part of her Goddess license training. However, she had panicked when I passed out and not knowing what else to do dragged me with her when she came back here. When I asked as to why I could suddenly see fine without glasses and had a body that was markedly different than the one I was used to, Belldandy offered me a smile and said that it was probably the effect of being taken through the portal Skuld used. Apparently humans didn't travel through Skuld's portal all that often and so the unexpected side effects I had experienced.   
  
Skuld looked at me in the eye and said in a tiny voice that was so depressed compared to when we had met during that first fateful phone call "I'm sorry... I really didn't mean for this to happen, honest!" I gave her what I hoped was a calming and reassuring smile "It's okay Skuld, I'm alive, heck if anything I should be thanking you for giving me the chance that I have now". Skuld blinked, confused "Really?" I smiled "Cross my heart and hope to die". I even went so far as to make the X motion over my chest, I really felt sorry for her and hardly gave my present predicament a second thought. What she did next surprised everyone at the table as she literally flew around the table and hugged me. "Thank you" she whispered and with that she flew off into her room in an attempt to undo what she had done and get me back to where I belonged. I smiled at her retreating form, hopeful that she could fix things soon. Urd meanwhile merely yawned and declared that she was going back to her TV, seeing as how all the excitement was over with.  
  
Belldandy sat across from me and spoke softly "Thank you, Skuld feels badly about everything that's happened. She's going to get you back where you belong. I believe in her. If there was anything either Urd or I could do about this we would, but our portal magics are forbidden to mix". I smiled back "I understand Belldandy. Oddly enough, I believe in Skuld's ability to set things right. It's as though I know everything will turn out fine if I just put my faith in her. Strange isn't it?" Belldandy smiled "No, it's not all that strange, faith and belief are what cause us to work that much harder to achieve what may seem to be impossible initially. You have a good heart and you're willing to trust her. With those things aiding her I'm sure she'll succeed" and with that Belldandy went into the kitchen after insisting that I relax and leave the kitchen duties to her.  
  
I made my way outside to the grounds of the temple. The grounds were just as impressive as the temple itself. Everywhere I looked things were alive and overflowing with the energy of nature itself. It was as idyllic a paradise as I could have wished for. The sounds of a motorcycle broke me from my reverie and I watched a young man who looked to be about the same age as myself step off the bike. The young man looked at me quizzically "My name is Keiichi Morisato, can I help you?" he inquired politely. I smiled "Not unless you know how to get me home I'm afraid... you see Skuld had a little accident..." and I relayed my tale to the new arrival.  
  
Keiichi blew the air out of his cheeks "Yow, that's rough, so right now they don't have any idea how to get you back where you belong?" I massaged my forehead "Not a clue, as you know Skuld's magic works differently than Urd's or Belldandy's. Belldandy said that mixing of magic might just make things worse than they already are. So right now I just have to put my faith in Skuld". The mechanical being I had met earlier interrupted our conversation and announced "Dinner is ready." The little robot named Banpei headed back towards the house. We looked at one another and headed back, Keiichi simply glowing at the though of one of Belldandy's meals and me just hoping that this meal brought us that much closer to a resolution to my problem.  
  
In a nearby tree, a miniature woman chuckled evilly to herself "Oh this is too rich. That little brat Skuld went and managed to screw up her first attempt to upgrade her license to First Class. I've got to stick around and see how this plays out and who knows? I might even get to have a little fun with this too!" With that the Demon First Class Mara disappeared in a puff of smoke chuckling to herself.  
  
As we sat down to eat, a newcomer joined us at the dinner table. It was Keiichi's younger sister Megumi. Though only a year younger than he was, Keiichi made the point quite clear that she was in fact younger than he was and as such under his protection. After Keiichi introduced me to her as a penpal here for a visit and we finished eating, I found myself alone with her talking about various things. I found out that she was in the same Motor Club as her older brother but that she also managed to start a girl's softball club on the campus. I told her a hastily concocted story about being a penpal of Keiichi's from overseas, having come over to Japan as a sort of vacation from school. She seemed fascinated by this, with all sorts of questions about Western culture and we ended up talking together well into the night.   
  
Later that night, I walked her to the temple gates while Keiichi was busy studying. She looked up into my eyes with a shy smile and asked me how long I was here for. I replied that I wasn't quite sure but that it wouldn't be for very long. Megumi suddenly pressed something into my hand and left waving back at me as she disappeared into the night riding her own motorbike. Curious, I opened my hand and found her name and phone number scribbled on a piece of paper with the words "Call me". I walked back into the temple with a bemused expression on my face.  
  
From behind a branch on a tree, a small-bodied Urd gave a wry chuckle "Boy, will those two make an interesting pair. I wonder what Keiichi is going to do about this when he finds out about it?" Mini-Urd smiled and vanished in a puff of smoke, realizing that her favourite drama 'Winter Nights' was about to start and she was damned if she was going to miss this latest episode, since it appeared that the soap opera in front of her was just beginning.  
  
End Chapter 1 


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